[Albert S. Evans, Letter from White Pine, Alta California, March 9, 1869]

 

LETTER FROM WHITE PINE.

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[SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE ALTA.]

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More New Discoveries Reported — Increase in Excitement — Other Developments — The Wild Cats of White Pine — The Weather and Cost of Living.

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TREASURE CITY, White Pine, )

Nevada. March 4th, 1869. )

            Editors Alta: There is no abatement as yet in the excitement here; in fact, I may say that it is steadily on the increase. Real estate is going up, up, up, as if it had wings, and though everybody thought, three months since, that the top of the ladder was reached, and the grand crash imminent, there is no halt yet in the upward movement. New discoveries are being made daily in all directions, and money comes in from East and West, for investment, in a stream.

The Last Excitement.

            The last, or, perhaps, I should say the latest excitement, is over the new discoveries of rich chloride and horn silver, similar to that on Treasure Hill, right over opposite Treasure City, on the summit of the Base Range Mountain, due west of us, and, perhaps, 400 or 500 feet higher, say at an altitude of 9,400 feet above the sea. The new discoveries are on a flat similar to the Chloride, Bromide, Pogonip, and Alta Flats information, but inclining somewhat towards the northwards. The limestone or dolomite, pitches westward towards the White Pine Mountain proper. The Base Range is midway between Treasure Hill and the White Pine Mountain, and the new discoveries are a thousand feet or more above the "base metal" deposits, which are found in the caρon: on either side at the foot of the range. As I sit at a window, fronting westward, I have a full view of the new silver "flat," and, with a glass, can see every stick, stone, and other object sticking out above the snow, the distance not being more than a mile and a half in a direct line. At least three hundred men are running about with picks and shovels, making locations or digging down to the rock, preparing to blast into the rock, while hundreds and hundreds more are crossing the intervening caρon, and climbing the steep eastern slope of the range, in eager haste to get upon the ground and get their "stakes" struck. The main street of Treasure City is thronged with people, looking with glasses or the naked eye at the crowd on the opposite hill, and as each has some friend there who has agreed to "put him in," it is the old affair of the "Spectre of the Brocken," spectre and spectator being only the shadow and the substance of the same individual. The new discoveries are as yet not sufficiently developed to enable me to say anything of their extent or value, but I have sent a friend over there, in company with others, to stick up some notices, and if the report is favorable will go over myself in a day or two. The ground on which the prospectors are at work was in part at least located by other parties over a year since, but there is considerable new ground yet unlocated. I am falling into the belief that it is cheaper in the long run to buy good mines already located and opened than to run off to every new scene of excitement in search of new locations and attendant complications.

Recent Developments.

            The work on the California, at the southern end of Treasure Hill, is developing an immense mine, and more than sustaining the character of the ledge as given in my letter to the Alta about the 1st of February last. The ore is in an immense body and growing better daily, while the walls continue so well defined as to leave no doubt in the mind of anybody of its being a true fissure vein, going right down into the bowels of the earth.

            The Comstock claims, four in number, situated on the southern slope of the hill, some distance southwest of the Eberhardt, have been sold this week to San Francisco capitalists for a round sum; rumor says $25,000 in coin. There is good ore there, and big mines may yet be developed in that locality. Work is going on upon all the flats and new claims are being taken up within a few feet of each other daily. At the same time most of the better claims on each flat are being concentrated by purchase into the hands of large companies.

            On Chloride Flat the old claims — now mainly held by one Company — are being developed rapidly, and you can pass from one to another in underground chambers. Ten thousand dollars in bullion went off from those claims in one shipment last week. On the Pioche claim — a square location on Chloride Flat — a shaft is being sunk to a depth of 50 feet. It has already passed through spar, which here always accompanies ore, and still sinking deeper. In two new locations made within a few days by trespassers on the ground of this claim, rich chlorides have been struck, and the miners have been warned off by the owners of the Pioche, who will proceed to drift them out immediately if they do not get away at once.  I shall speak of other new developments in my next.

            The shipment of bullion Eastward has already commenced, the First National Bank of Nevada having sent off $30,000 Overland to Chicago last week.

Wild-Cats.

            Letters and despatches are coming here hourly from San Francisco and the East, inquiring about claims of which no one here knows anything whatever, and some of which are beyond the reach of the most patient investigator. It is evident that a tremendous business in wild-cat is being done by somebody. I reiterate that the best place to sell a really good mine is right here, and caution the readers of the Alta once more against indiscriminate investments. Of the one hundred — or thereabouts — new incorporations made in San Francisco to work in White Pine, I doubt if a man could find the locations of the claims on which over twenty- five of them are ostensibly based before his legs were worn off square to his body.

The Weather.

            Since Sunday, February 26th, when there was a terrible storm and intense cold here, the weather has been remarkably fine, and the snow has melted off much faster than it has fallen. The depth of snow now on Treasure Hill is not over one foot on the average, many spots being quite bare, while others are covered with heavy drifts. The days are warm and sunny; the nights very cold. I am sleeping under two pairs of blankets and a heavy overcoat, and get very cold before morning, every time.

The Rush — Cost of Living, Etc.

            The rush continues unabated, and the three towns of Hamilton, Treasure Hill and Silver Springs must now contain at least 5,000 people, all told. To this population 50 to 100 are being added daily. Lumber is not obtainable fast enough to erect buildings to accommodate the crowd thus pressing into the district. It costs a man $3 per day in gold coin for two tolerable (?) meals and a bunk in a room or tent in which from 50 to 100 other men are sleeping. Myself and six others have hired a little shanty of rough boards, about 12 by 16 feet in size, with one window, one door and a cloth roof. We paid $50 for a cooking-stove, as much more for dishes, etc., as much more for a few provisions to start in housekeeping on, and hired a Chinaman for $40 per month to cook us two meals per day (he earns $80 more at outside jobs). In this way we can live tolerable comfortable for about $75 each per month. We pay only $60 per month for the house, which could be put up in San Francisco for $40 at the outside. As to the district, it is developing richer than ever; but, as I have said already, "look out sharp for wild cats!"

E.